Psalms 18:33

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He makes my feet like the feet of a deerand sets me securely on the heights.

Hebrew Names Version
He makes my feet like hinds' feet, And sets me on my high places.

King James Version
He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places.

English Standard Version
He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.

New Century Version
He makes me like a deer that does not stumble; he helps me stand on the steep mountains.

New English Translation
He gives me the agility of a deer; he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain.

Amplified Bible
He makes my feet like hinds' feet [able to stand firmly and tread safely on paths of testing and trouble]; He sets me [securely] upon my high places.

New American Standard Bible
He makes my feet like deer's feet, And sets me up on my high places.

World English Bible
He makes my feet like hinds' feet, And sets me on my high places.

Geneva Bible (1587)
He maketh my feete like hindes feete, and setteth me vpon mine high places.

Legacy Standard Bible
He makes my feet like hinds' feet,And sets me upon my high places.

Berean Standard Bible
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer and stations me upon the heights.

Contemporary English Version
You make my feet run as fast as those of a deer, and you help me stand on the mountains.

Complete Jewish Bible
"It is God who girds me with strength; he makes my way go straight.

Darby Translation
Who maketh my feet like hinds' [feet], and setteth me upon my high places;

Easy-to-Read Version
He makes my feet as steady as those of a deer. Even on steep mountains he keeps me from falling.

George Lamsa Translation
He makes my feet like harts feet and sets me upon high places.

Good News Translation
He makes me sure-footed as a deer; he keeps me safe on the mountains.

Lexham English Bible
he made my feet like the deer's, and on my high places he makes me stand.

Literal Translation
setting my feet like the deer, and making me stand on my high places;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He hath made my fete like hartes fete, and set me vp an hye.

American Standard Version
He maketh my feet like hinds' feet: And setteth me upon my high places.

Bible in Basic English
He makes my feet like roes' feet, and puts me on high places.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
The God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way straight;

King James Version (1611)
Hee maketh my feete like hindes feete, and setteth me vpon my high places.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
He hath made my feete lyke Hartes feete: and he hath set me vp on hygh.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
who strengthens my feet as hart’s feet, and sets me upon high places.

English Revised Version
He maketh my feet like hinds' feet: and setteth me upon my high places,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
God that hath gird me with vertu; and hath set my weie vnwemmed.

Update Bible Version
He makes my feet like hinds' [feet]: And sets me on my high places.

Webster's Bible Translation
He maketh my feet like hinds' [feet], and setteth me upon my high places.

New King James Version
He makes my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places.

New Living Translation
He makes me as surefooted as a deer, enabling me to stand on mountain heights.

New Life Bible
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. And He sets me on my high places.

New Revised Standard
He made my feet like the feet of a deer, and set me secure on the heights.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Planting my feet like hinds' feet , yea, on my high places, he caused me to stand:

Douay-Rheims Bible
(17-34) Who hath made my feet like the feet of harts: and who setteth me upon high places.

Revised Standard Version
He made my feet like hinds' feet, and set me secure on the heights.

Young's Literal Translation
Making my feet like hinds, And on my high places causeth me to stand.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
He makes my feet like hinds' feet, And sets me upon my high places.

Contextual Overview

³⁰ What a God! His road stretches straight and smooth. Every God -direction is road-tested. Everyone who runs toward him Makes it. ³¹Is there any god like God ? Are we not at bedrock? Is not this the God who armed me, then aimed me in the right direction? Now I run like a deer; I'm king of the mountain. He shows me how to fight; I can bend a bronze bow! You protect me with salvation-armor; you hold me up with a firm hand, caress me with your gentle ways. You cleared the ground under me so my footing was firm. When I chased my enemies I caught them; I didn't let go till they were dead men. I nailed them; they were down for good; then I walked all over them. You armed me well for this fight, you smashed the upstarts. You made my enemies turn tail, and I wiped out the haters. They cried "uncle" but Uncle didn't come; They yelled for God and got no for an answer. I ground them to dust; they gusted in the wind. I threw them out, like garbage in the gutter. ⁴³You rescued me from a squabbling people; you made me a leader of nations. People I'd never heard of served me; the moment they got wind of me they listened. The foreign devils gave up; they came on their bellies, crawling from their hideouts. ⁴⁶Live, God ! Blessings from my Rock, my free and freeing God, towering! This God set things right for me and shut up the people who talked back. He rescued me from enemy anger, he pulled me from the grip of upstarts, He saved me from the bullies. ⁴⁹That's why I'm thanking you, God , all over the world. That's why I'm singing songs that rhyme your name. God's king takes the trophy; God's chosen is beloved. I mean David and all his children— always.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

maketh: 2 Samuel 2:18

high: Deuteronomy 32:13, Deuteronomy 33:29, 2 Samuel 22:14, Habakkuk 3:19

Reciprocal: Genesis 49:21 - General 2 Samuel 22:35 - teacheth Psalms 27:5 - set me Isaiah 33:16 - his place Luke 15:22 - and shoes

Cross-References

Genesis 18:16
When the men got up to leave, they set off for Sodom. Abraham walked with them to say good-bye.

Genesis 18:22
The men set out for Sodom, but Abraham stood in God 's path, blocking his way.

Genesis 31:55
Jacob learned that Laban's sons were talking behind his back: "Jacob has used our father's wealth to make himself rich at our father's expense." At the same time, Jacob noticed that Laban had changed toward him. He wasn't treating him the same. That's when God said to Jacob, "Go back home where you were born. I'll go with you." So Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to meet him out in the field where his flocks were. He said, "I notice that your father has changed toward me; he doesn't treat me the same as before. But the God of my father hasn't changed; he's still with me. You know how hard I've worked for your father. Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again. But God never let him really hurt me. If he said, ‘Your wages will consist of speckled animals' the whole flock would start having speckled lambs and kids. And if he said, ‘From now on your wages will be streaked animals' the whole flock would have streaked ones. Over and over God used your father's livestock to reward me. "Once, while the flocks were mating, I had a dream and saw the billy goats, all of them streaked, speckled, and mottled, mounting their mates. In the dream an angel of God called out to me, ‘Jacob!' "I said, ‘Yes?' "He said, ‘Watch closely. Notice that all the goats in the flock that are mating are streaked, speckled, and mottled. I know what Laban's been doing to you. I'm the God of Bethel where you consecrated a pillar and made a vow to me. Now be on your way, get out of this place, go home to your birthplace.'" Rachel and Leah said, "Has he treated us any better? Aren't we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he's spent all that. Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children's. Go ahead. Do what God told you." Jacob did it. He put his children and his wives on camels and gathered all his livestock and everything he had gotten, everything acquired in Paddan Aram, to go back home to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. Laban was off shearing sheep. Rachel stole her father's household gods. And Jacob had concealed his plans so well that Laban the Aramean had no idea what was going on—he was totally in the dark. Jacob got away with everything he had and was soon across the Euphrates headed for the hill country of Gilead. Three days later, Laban got the news: "Jacob's run off." Laban rounded up his relatives and chased after him. Seven days later they caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, "Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad." When Laban reached him, Jacob's tents were pitched in the Gilead mountains; Laban pitched his tents there, too. "What do you mean," said Laban, "by keeping me in the dark and sneaking off, hauling my daughters off like prisoners of war? Why did you run off like a thief in the night? Why didn't you tell me? Why, I would have sent you off with a great celebration—music, timbrels, flutes! But you wouldn't permit me so much as a kiss for my daughters and grandchildren. It was a stupid thing for you to do. If I had a mind to, I could destroy you right now, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, ‘Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.' I understand. You left because you were homesick. But why did you steal my household gods?" Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me by brute force. But as far as your gods are concerned, if you find that anybody here has them, that person dies. With all of us watching, look around. If you find anything here that belongs to you, take it." Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen the gods. Laban went through Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and the tents of the two maids but didn't find them. He went from Leah's tent to Rachel's. But Rachel had taken the household gods, put them inside a camel cushion, and was sitting on them. When Laban had gone through the tent, searching high and low without finding a thing, Rachel said to her father, "Don't think I'm being disrespectful, my master, that I can't stand before you, but I'm having my period." So even though he turned the place upside down in his search, he didn't find the household gods. Now it was Jacob's turn to get angry. He lit into Laban: "So what's my crime, what wrong have I done you that you badger me like this? You've ransacked the place. Have you turned up a single thing that's yours? Let's see it—display the evidence. Our two families can be the jury and decide between us. "In the twenty years I've worked for you, ewes and she-goats never miscarried. I never feasted on the rams from your flock. I never brought you a torn carcass killed by wild animals but that I paid for it out of my own pocket—actually, you made me pay whether it was my fault or not. I was out in all kinds of weather, from torrid heat to freezing cold, putting in many a sleepless night. For twenty years I've done this: I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flock and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not stuck with me, you would have sent me off penniless. But God saw the fix I was in and how hard I had worked and last night rendered his verdict." Laban defended himself: "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flock is my flock—everything you see is mine. But what can I do about my daughters or for the children they've had? So let's settle things between us, make a covenant—God will be the witness between us." Jacob took a stone and set it upright as a pillar. Jacob called his family around, "Get stones!" They gathered stones and heaped them up and then ate there beside the pile of stones. Laban named it in Aramaic, Yegar-sahadutha (Witness Monument); Jacob echoed the naming in Hebrew, Galeed (Witness Monument). Laban said, "This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me." (That's why it is called Galeed—Witness Monument.) It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, " God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight. If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there's no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us." Laban continued to Jacob, "This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won't cross this line to hurt you and you won't cross this line to hurt me. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (the God of their ancestor) will keep things straight between us." Jacob promised, swearing by the Fear, the God of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and worshiped, calling in all his family members to the meal. They ate and slept that night on the mountain. Laban got up early the next morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, blessed them, and then set off for home.

Genesis 32:26
The man said, "Let me go; it's daybreak." Jacob said, "I'm not letting you go 'til you bless me."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He maketh my feet like hind's [feet],.... As light and swift as theirs, as the Targum; that is, either to flee, when there was a necessity for it, as Kimchi observes; or rather to pursue after the enemy, to run through a troop, and leap over a wall, as before; see

1 Chronicles 12:8; the same phrase is used in Habakkuk 3:19; and may be understood in a spiritual sense of that readiness and cheerfulness with which the saints run the ways of God's commandments, when their hearts are enlarged with his love and grace; and may very well be applied to Christ, who is often compared to a roe, or a young hart, for swiftness; who readily and at once engaged to come and do the will of God, and whose coming in the flesh, at the appointed time, was swift; and who made haste to do the work of God, in which he took the utmost pleasure; and who is a speedy and present help to his people in time of trouble; see Song of Solomon 2:8;

and setteth me upon my high places; the towers and fortresses, and strong and fortified places, where he was safe from his enemies; and: in a spiritual sense, may design the everlasting love of God, the covenant of grace, its blessings and promises; and Christ himself, with the fulness of grace in him, on which believers may be said to be set, when their faith is directed to them, and they live and dwell upon them; see Habakkuk 3:19; and, the words were fulfilled in Christ, when God highly exalted him at his right hand, and set him above all principalities and powers, and made him higher than the heavens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet - So Habakkuk 3:19, “He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.” The hind is the female deer, remarkable for fleetness or swiftness. The meaning here is, that God had made him alert or active, enabling him to pursue a flying enemy, or to escape from a swift-running foe.

And setteth me upon my high places - places of safety or refuge. The idea is, that God had given him security, or had rendered him safe from danger. Compare Deuteronomy 32:13. Swiftness of foot, or ability to escape from, or to pursue an enemy, was regarded as of great value in ancient warfare. Achilles, according to the descriptions of Homer, was remarkable for it. Compare 2 Samuel 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 18:33. My feet like hinds' feet] Swiftness, or speed of foot, was a necessary qualification of an ancient hero. This was of great advantage in pursuing, combating, or escaping from a fallen foe. Ποδας ωκυς Αχιλλευς, "the swiftfooted Achilles," is frequently given by Homer as a most honourable qualification of his hero.

Upon my high places. — In allusion to the hinds, antelopes, mountain goats, &c., which frequented such places, and in which they found both food and safety. God frequently preserved the life of David by means of these.